What advice would you give to someone just starting out on personal branding?

A cohesive brand is made up of many smaller decisions, from color palette to language used on social media. Where would you begin?

A product is never just a product, right? Choosing certain products or services is often done with the general experience we think they will provide in mind. The goal of branding overall is to stand out from the crowd, to have a name that will be remembered, preferred, and even admired. 

Share your must-haves in the comments below.

For a  professional artist or photographer, just stick with your own name in the logo. It isn't unique or original to do that,  but for those two groups, who they are, and what they do, are inseperable. 

Don't claim to be an expert if you're not. 

Wally Ollins writes in his book the brand handbook;

“A brand is simply an organisation, or a product, or service with a personality.”

Any great personality is based upon having a solid understanding of yourself. It’s no different for a brand.

Much like us, a brands personality is formed by defining why it exists, what tribe it belongs to and what it believes in; purpose, customer and values. 

We carry out brand strategy to discover and define these questions first, as they will act as our cornerstones for design decisions made going forwards.

But it’s not enough to just know who we are, as environment also sculpts personality. We need to know our customers problems and what other brands are trying to solve them. 

Where we sit amongst the competition and where we want to be. Thorough market research ensures that the personality we are defining is unique, will achieve the goals of the business and most importantly, will make our customers lives easier.


If you’re serious about building a brand, you should be able to answer the questions I’ve talked about. If you can’t, and you’re investing in your brand currently, take a step back and think about the foundations that you are trying to build on. You might save yourself a lot of time in the long run.

Dan, 
Bloody Lovely Branding Co.

IG: @bloodylovelybrandingco

Branding explained:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJl3qX_DBKq/?igshid=vlf9owcbhjit

Audio clip:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJ4gxIkJNJy/?igshid=14a44a1o42i02

Social media is a big help for your personal branding...

For a  professional artist or photographer, just stick with your own name in the logo. It isn't unique or original to do that,  but for those two groups, who they are, and what they do, are inseperable.

• Stay consistent
• Be wary of your tone on voice
• Turn your brand into a lifestyle
• Be consistent with colours
• Make people feel something and be memorable
• Make yourself known as someone knowledgeable
• Look for inspo from brands you like

Don't worry too much in your early days, your business is likely to change a little bit or even a lot. Figure yourself out and once you're 100% sure that it's right lean into it and never waver.

Analyze your top 5 competitors! Just find every other way your competitors been following for branding. When you have a clear idea what and whatnot they've been doing to promote their business, you'll have a better point of view to stand out in the market. 

Start with online marketing, find every platform you can use to sign up as a brand and reach to a more wider audience. Think outside the box (marketize your business on more than just Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). 

Here are more ways to conduct market research for your brand. 

https://best.ways.to/do-market-research

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your day ^^

What i have experienced is that;

Stay consistent 

Stay Motivated towards your goals.

More important keep yourself up-to-date with new trends.

Send your stuff to bloggers for promotion of your brand.

Keep your active on social media. Post daily on Instagram which is very important. Make different social account for branding of your brand.

Stay true to who you are and what you'd like your brand identity to be.

• Start off by asking yourself what adjectives you would use to describe your business.
• From there you can develop your tone and voice, then add the creative element and add colors that are associated with your business and those adjectives you picked.
• Next, start thinking about fonts, what main font you want your products/ marketing collateral to display.
• Using google fonts will help you match fonts that look great with the one you chose.
•  Look at websites in the same industry as you, create a list of what you like and don't like.
• Start documenting all of these little excerises and before you know it you have a skeleton to brand guidelines! 

Hi there, 

I think a lot of branding comes down to establishing your "why." Not just why your product exists but why that should matter to other people. 

From there, I think it is about getting very clear and concise on what you offer and understanding people's pain points and motivations. 

Next up, establishing content that is valuable for potential customers and the best channels to reach them. 

SEO and discoverability is obviously important, but it is also essential to consider what keywords people will use to find your products and services. For example, do they use or even know the technical terms in your industry? If not, how can you position your copy to meet their needs best? 

I think when you start with these foundational pieces you can then consider the look and feel of your brand - the message you want to convey and how you want people to feel. Once you've established these bigger questions things like colour, font choice, photography and tone become much clearer. 

I created a guide to crafting your digital marketing presence, complete with worksheets for identifying your unique benefits and campaign planning. If you are interested in checking it out, you can find it here: 

https://tinycoastdigital.com/shop

This is an old thread, but I really love questions related to brand-building.

It's just three basic things: Purpose, Aesthetic, and Voice. I sometimes abbreviate it as PAV or Point-Awe-View–if you will.

1. PURPOSE - no matter how profitable you think your brand is going to be, if the only purpose is money, it's going to bleed out onto your brand. The best brands were from visionaries who actually solved a personal problem that they experienced firsthand–Mark Zuckerburg saw a lack of community amongst Harvard students and built a way for them to connect; I don't need to tell you how that turned out today.

2. AESTHETIC - whether its the images you use, the tones of your palettes, and the voice of your brand–you have to be marketable to your target audience. You can't be aiming to target construction workers who uses power tools with a domain littered with rainbows and unicorns–I'd love to see you try haha.

3. VOICE - the authenticity of your brand, how you actually come across to your community, and how much you really know about them–the voice of a brand is very powerful. You can see it with the links of the BLM movement with gigantic establishments like Starbucks and Netflix–it humanizes the identity of your brand behind everything else.


 

Be patient and competent. 

Have everything written down, and get legal advice. Whenever you're starting out a business or any monetizable adventure, always think in a futuristic perspective. Other than what the other members mentioned like personal marketing, brand identification, or product establishment–you'll need to manage your taxes, monitor your growth, and gauge your net worth.

Another important thing to remember: don't grab opportunities right away. This might sound like a negative thing to say, but listen for a minute. When you're growing, your presence will be more known to a wide variety of 'seekers'. You'll have brands reaching out to you, people trying to offer you all sorts of stuff and knocking at your door. Don't let them in... yet. Because before any partnership is formed, you need to master the art of contract negotiation. To do this, you need to know the quality of your work and your products, and you need to quantify it in its monetary equivalent. Never let anyone lowball you–unless they're a potential long-term asset.